⚡ Quick Answer: Jacket Lining
Sew the lining as a second jacket, leaving a 4 to 6 inch gap in one sleeve seam. Sew the lining to the jacket around the front facings and the neck edge, then around the hem, then join each lining sleeve to its cuff, and turn the whole jacket right side out through the gap. Close the gap by hand, press the edges, and anchor the lining to the jacket with short thread chains at the side seams.
A jacket lining is the part nobody sees and everybody notices. It is what makes a jacket slide on over a shirt instead of gripping it, what hides the seam allowances and the interfacing, and what stops the back of the jacket collapsing between the shoulder blades.
It also frightens people out of sewing jackets at all, which is a shame, because sewing a lining is the easiest part of the project. The jacket is already finished when the lining begins. There are no pockets, no buttonholes, no collar to set and no sleeves to ease; there is one shape to sew, one long seam to join and one gap to close.
What a Lining Actually Does
Four jobs, and only one of them is decorative.
Bagging a lining is one continuous seam around the outside of a jacket, one seam around the bottom, two short seams inside the sleeves, and one turn. The gap you leave in a sleeve seam is the whole trick. Nothing else in the method is difficult.
It lets the jacket slide. Wool, tweed and boucle grip a shirt or a jumper. A smooth lining gives the jacket a low-friction inside surface, so it goes on and comes off without dragging the layers underneath.
It hides the construction. Every seam allowance, every pressed-open seam, every scrap of interfacing in the body is covered. That is why the inside of a tailored jacket looks as considered as the outside.
It takes the strain. A lining carries the load of the shoulder and the armhole as the jacket is put on, which preserves the shape of the shell.
It adds warmth without weight. A lining traps a layer of still air next to the body. A viscose lining in a light cotton jacket adds noticeable warmth for almost no bulk.
The one thing a lining does not do is make a badly fitting jacket fit. If the jacket pulls across the back or the shoulders sit wrong, fix that before you cut lining fabric; the lining cannot correct the shell.
Choosing the Lining Fabric
The lining should be lighter than the shell and smoother than the shell. It should also be able to move, because it takes the movement of the body while the shell stays comparatively still.
| Fabric | How it behaves | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Acetate or Bemberg | Smooth, cheap, does not breathe well | Budget jackets; the standard ready-to-wear lining |
| Polyester taffeta | Very slippery, strong, rustles | Coats and anoraks; noisy in a jacket |
| Cupro | Fine, breathable, silk-like, drapes well | Wool and tweed jackets; the tailoring default |
| Viscose or rayon | Soft, breathable, shrinks unless pre-washed | Summer jackets and unlined-feeling linen |
| Cotton batiste | Breathable, no shine, no slip | Very light summer jackets and children’s clothes |
| Silk habotai | Light, strong, expensive | Wool jackets where the inside matters as much as the out |
Two practical rules. Pre-wash any viscose or cotton lining exactly as you will wash the finished jacket, because a lining that shrinks will pull the jacket out of shape from the inside. And buy a lining a shade darker than the shell rather than lighter: a pale lining shows every mark and every shadow of the seam allowances beneath it.
What You Need
| Item | What to use | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Lining fabric | 2 to 2½ yards for a hip-length jacket | Buy the same yardage as the shell if unsure |
| Pattern pieces | The body and sleeve pieces, without the facings | Facings stay in the shell fabric |
| Thread | Fine polyester matching the lining | A dark lining needs a dark thread, not black |
| Needle | 70/10 or 80/12 sharp | A fine lining marks if the needle is blunt |
| Machine | Straight stitch, 2.5 mm | No special foot required |
| Hand sewing | A fine hand needle and a thread chain | For the gap and the tacks |
Step 1: Cut the Lining Pieces
Lay out the body and sleeve pattern pieces and leave the facings out. A facing is a structural piece that turns back to the inside of the jacket, and the lining joins to its inner edge rather than replacing it.
Cut the body lining shorter at the hem. Cut the lining ⅝ inch shorter than the jacket body at the bottom edge, so the lining hangs above the jacket hem and cannot peek out below it. If the jacket has a deep hem, 1¼ inches, cut the lining a full inch shorter and let the hem allowance do the work.
Add ease at the centre back. Add 1½ inches of width at the centre back seam of the lining and press that extra into a pleat. The pleat opens when you sit or reach forward and closes again when you stand, which is what stops the lining tearing out of the armhole after a month of wear.
Add a little at the shoulder blades. Add ¼ inch to the back lining at the shoulder blades if the jacket is for someone with a broad back or if the lining fabric has no stretch at all. The back of a jacket needs more room than the front, because that is where the body moves.
Mirror the sleeve pieces exactly. There is no easier mistake to make in this project than cutting two right sleeves, or one sleeve lining on the wrong side of the fabric. Mark the wrong side of every piece with chalk as you cut it, and lay the sleeve pieces out in pairs before you go near the machine.
Step 2: Sew the Lining as a Second Jacket
Sew the lining the way you sewed the jacket: shoulders, sleeves, side seams and sleeve seams, all in the same order, at a ⅝ inch seam allowance, with a 2.5 mm stitch.
There are three differences from the shell.
No pockets, no collar, no fastenings. The lining is plain. Leave the jacket’s pockets and buttons where they are; the lining will cover the pocket bags from the inside, which is exactly what you want.
Leave a gap in one sleeve seam. Sew both sleeve seams except for a 4 to 6 inch gap in the middle of one sleeve’s underarm seam. This gap is how the whole jacket will turn right side out. Put it mid-forearm, where the seam is straight and easy to close neatly, and mark both ends with a pin so you cannot sew past it by accident.
Stay-stitch the lining neckline. The lining neckline is a bias edge on most patterns, and a bias edge in a slippery lining will stretch before you get it near the jacket. Stay-stitch it as soon as it is cut.
Press every lining seam, and press them flat rather than open. Lining seams are usually pressed to one side to reduce bulk.
Step 3: Join the Lining to the Facings
Turn the jacket inside out. Turn the lining right side out and put it inside the jacket, so the two right sides are facing each other.
Pin the lining to the jacket along the front edge, starting at the hem and working up one front, around the collar and neck edge, and down the other front. Match the shoulder seams, the notches and the centre back first, then fill in between them.
Sew with a ⅝ inch seam allowance, following the same stitching line the facing was attached on. Stop about 2 inches short of where the facing joins the shoulder seam on each side if your pattern has a separate neck facing; otherwise sew the full length.
Clip the seam allowance at the curve of the neck and at the shoulder corners. Grade the allowances, trim the lining allowance to ¼ inch and leave the jacket allowance at its full width, so the finished edge rolls to the inside rather than the outside.
Step 4: Join the Hem
With the jacket and lining still right sides together, pin the bottom edge of the lining to the bottom edge of the jacket all the way round, matching the side seams.
Stitch ⅝ inch, then clip the corners at the front hem points. The jacket and lining are now joined at the front edges, the neck and the bottom: a closed tube with two sleeves sticking out of it and a hole in one sleeve.
Step 5: Join the Sleeve Hems
This is the step that makes people give up on a lining, and it is over in five minutes per sleeve.
Turn the whole jacket through the gap so it is right side out. It will look like a jacket with a sleeve inside out, then pull one lining sleeve out of the jacket sleeve.
Turn the lining sleeve’s hem up toward its own wrong side by 4 to 6 inches, so the right side of the lining faces out. Push that folded lining sleeve into the jacket sleeve until the raw edges meet, with the underarm seams matching. Check the sleeve is not twisted by running a hand through from the shoulder.
Pin round the two raw edges and sew a ¼ to ⅜ inch seam. Repeat for the other sleeve, then turn the jacket right side out through the gap.
Do both sleeves in the same session. The first one is confusing and the second one takes three minutes, and leaving the second for another day is how a jacket ends up in a bag under a table for six months.
Step 6: Turn, Press and Close the Gap
Turn the jacket right side out through the gap in the sleeve lining. Push the corners of the collar and the hem out with a blunt tool, not scissors.
Press the front edges, the collar and the hem from the right side with a press cloth, rolling the seam slightly to the inside so the facing disappears. Press the lining separately on the inside, at a lower temperature than the shell, and let it cool flat before you handle it.
The turning step is the only moment in jacket sewing where the garment looks completely wrong and is in fact completely right. A jacket turned inside out through its own sleeve looks like a mistake. Keep going.
Close the 4 to 6 inch gap in the sleeve lining by hand with a slip stitch, or by machine with an edgestitch if the sleeve is roomy enough to get under the needle. Hand is neater here; the seam is inside a sleeve where nobody looks, but a machine stitch there always puckers.
Step 7: Anchor the Lining With Thread Chains
A lining hangs from the shoulders. If it is not anchored at the side seams, it rides up every time the jacket is put on, and after a season the underarm seam is strained out of shape.
Sew a thread chain, a short crocheted loop of thread, about 1 inch long, made by looping the needle through a loop of thread a few times, between the lining side seam and the jacket side seam allowance, at the underarm level and again at the waist or high hip on a longer jacket. Tuck it between the two layers so it never shows.
The Order of Work at a Glance
Write this list on a scrap of paper and tick it off, because a bagged lining is a sequence, not a set of independent steps, and going out of order means unpicking.
- Jacket shell finished: seams sewn, pockets in, collar on, sleeves set, facings attached.
- Lining cut: body and sleeves, facings left out, ⅝ inch shorter at the hem, 1½ inches added at the centre back.
- Lining sewn as a second jacket, with a 4 to 6 inch gap left in one underarm sleeve seam.
- Lining joined to the front edge and neck facing, right sides together.
- Lining joined to the jacket hem all the way round.
- Lining sleeves joined to the jacket cuffs, one at a time.
- Turned through the gap, pressed, gap closed.
- Thread chains at the side seams, then a final press.
Steps 4 to 6 can be done in a different order on some patterns. A zip-front jacket is usually bagged round the outer edge and through the sleeve, and a jacket with a back vent needs the vent joined before the hem, but the gap in the sleeve seam stays where it is.
How Long It Takes, and What It Costs
| Stage | Time for a first jacket | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Cutting the lining | 40 minutes | Longer than it sounds: grain, pairs, chalk |
| Sewing the lining body and sleeves | 1 hour 30 | Straight seams, no fitting |
| Joining facings and hem | 45 minutes | The pinning takes as long as the sewing |
| Joining the cuffs | 20 minutes | Five minutes each, plus twenty of puzzling |
| Turning, pressing, closing the gap | 30 minutes | Pressing is the part that shows |
| Thread chains | 15 minutes | Two tacks, done properly |
Four hours for a first lining, and about two for the second. The fabric is the main cost: cupro or a good viscose costs more per yard than a cheap acetate and behaves far better, and two and a half yards is the whole budget. The lining is also where a cheap jacket is most easily made to feel expensive, because it is the part the wearer sees every time they put it on.
Lining Unusual Jacket Shapes
A cropped jacket needs no changes to the method, only to the numbers: the hem offset stays at ⅝ inch, but the pleat at the centre back becomes more important, because there is less lining to absorb movement.
An oversized jacket needs more ease everywhere. Add 2 inches at the centre back instead of 1½, and add a small pleat at the back of each sleeve, at the elbow line.
A long coat needs the lining anchored in more places: at the underarm, at the waist and again at the high hip, or the weight of the lining pulls the coat out of shape at the shoulder.
A jacket with no facings, a simple unlined-style jacket with a bound or topstitched front edge, is not bagged at all. The lining is sewn to the seam allowances by hand along the front edge and the hem, using the hand-felled method.
The Five Mistakes That Show on a Finished Jacket
| Mistake | What you see | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Lining cut to the same length as the jacket | Lining peeks below the hem | Cut it ⅝ to 1 inch shorter |
| No pleat at the centre back | Lining tears at the armhole seam | Add 1½ inches at centre back and press a pleat |
| Gap left in a side seam instead of a sleeve | Impossible to turn the sleeve cleanly | Leave the gap in one sleeve’s underarm seam |
| Lining twisted when joining the cuffs | Sleeve lining spirals inside the sleeve | Match underarm seams and check by hand before sewing |
| No thread chains | Lining rides up, underarm strains | Anchor at underarm and waist with thread chains |
Vents, Hoods and Other Awkward Shapes
A back vent, a hood, a two-piece sleeve: each has its own fiddly moment, and the same logic applies.
A back vent is bagged after the lining vent is sewn: join the lining vent to the jacket vent along the bottom edge, then stitch the lining to the vent facing before the hem seam is closed. The lining’s own vent must be slightly longer than the jacket’s so it does not pull.
A hood is usually bagged with the lining and shell joined at the hood’s front edge first, then the whole assembly is turned through the armhole or the sleeve gap.
A two-piece sleeve has two seams instead of one, and the elbow seam looks like the obvious place to leave the turning gap. Put it in the underarm seam anyway: the elbow seam is where the arm bends, so a hand-sewn repair there is felt every time you move, and it is the seam that takes the abrasion.
If the jacket has a lining that will be dry-cleaned rather than washed, finish the inside seam allowances with an overcast or pinking rather than a serger, and let the lining be a little looser everywhere. Dry cleaning shrinks a lining slowly over years, and the extra room is what keeps it wearable.
The Hand-Felled Alternative
Not every jacket is bagged. A tailored wool jacket is often lined by hand: the lining is sewn to the facings by machine, the hem and cuffs are finished by hand with a fell stitch, and the lining hangs free at the bottom with a generous hem allowance.
That method takes longer and gives a better result on heavy cloth, because the lining can be let down later and because the hand-stitched hem flexes with the shell instead of fighting it. For a first jacket, bag it. For a tailored wool jacket that someone will wear for fifteen years, learn the hand version afterwards.
Care and Pressing
Press a lined jacket from the outside, never on the lining seam allowances, and never with the iron flat on a synthetic lining. Acetate and polyester glaze at temperatures a wool shell shrugs off. Use a press cloth and keep the iron moving.
Hang a lined jacket on a broad wooden hanger, not a wire one, and leave the top button fastened. The lining carries part of the jacket’s weight, and a narrow hanger creases the shoulder line where the lining is anchored.
If the lining is a wool or viscose one and gets wet, dry the jacket flat with the lining pulled out and away from the shell. A wet lining that dries against the shell will shrink against it and leave the jacket puckered across the back.
For the inside finishing on an unlined jacket, the seam treatments in how to finish raw edges of fabric are the ones to use before the lining goes anywhere near it, and if the lining you have chosen is a viscose or rayon, the settings in how to sew with rayon fabric apply to the whole lining exactly as they do to a dress.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much lining fabric do I need for a jacket?
About 2 to 2½ yards for a hip-length jacket in 44 or 60 inch width. Buy the same yardage as the shell if you are unsure, and remember the facings are cut from the shell fabric, so the lining always needs slightly less than the jacket.
What is bagging a lining?
Bagging is joining the lining and the jacket right sides together around the facings, hem and cuffs, then turning the whole garment right side out through a gap left in one sleeve seam. It encloses every seam allowance and needs almost no hand sewing: just the gap and two thread chains.
Why is my jacket lining too tight?
Usually because the pleat at the centre back was left out, or the lining was cut to the same size as the shell instead of adding ease. Add 1½ inches at the centre back and press it into a pleat, and add a quarter inch at the shoulder blades. A lining needs slightly more room than the jacket, not less.
Should the lining be shorter than the jacket?
Yes. Cut the lining about ⅝ inch shorter at the hem, or a full inch shorter on a jacket with a deep hem, so it hangs above the jacket’s bottom edge and cannot show. A lining cut to the same length will peek out the moment the jacket is worn.
Where should I leave the gap to turn the lining?
In the underarm seam of one sleeve lining, in the middle of the forearm, about 4 to 6 inches long. That spot is straight, easy to close neatly by hand, and completely invisible. A gap in a side seam will not let you turn a sleeve cleanly.
Can I sew a lining without a serger?
Yes. A lining barely frays compared with the shell, and a plain ⅝ inch seam allowance pressed to one side is enough. If the lining does fray, run a zigzag along the allowance or pink it with pinking shears; an overlocker is convenient but not required.
Do you have to hand sew a jacket lining?
Only the gap in the sleeve seam and the thread chains at the side seams, if you use the bagging method. The hand-felled method used on tailored wool jackets is sewn by hand along the hem and cuffs instead, and takes considerably longer.
Can I line a jacket that is already finished?
Yes, but it is a different and slower job. The lining has to be sewn in by hand: attach it to the facings at the front and neck, fell the hem and the cuffs, and anchor it at the side seams. Nothing needs to be unpicked, which is the reason people do it.
Conclusion
A jacket lining is a second, simpler jacket joined to the first around the facings, the hem and the cuffs, with a gap left in one sleeve seam so the whole thing can be turned right side out. Cut it ⅝ inch short at the hem, add a pleat at the centre back, clip and grade the facing seam, and anchor it with two thread chains at the side seams.
If you have a jacket pattern you have been avoiding because of the lining, what is stopping you: the sleeve hems, the turning, or the fear of getting the facings wrong, and would it help to see which of those three the bagging method actually solves in one movement?
About This Guide
Written and sewn by Mithu, who has lined wool jackets, a linen blazer and one corduroy jacket she still wears every winter, who has sewn two right sleeves exactly once and now marks every wrong side in chalk, and who keeps a crochet hook on the sewing table whose only job is making thread chains.
The seam allowances, hem offsets, pleat allowance and gap length in this guide are the standard figures used in the bagged-lining method, and every one of them can be checked on the pattern pieces before a single seam is sewn. The fabric recommendations follow the behaviour of the fibres as they are used in tailoring lining, including the breathability difference between acetate and cupro.
All images in this article were created using AI.